Production in a manufacturing factory having a job-shop type production system (for example, a semiconductor device manufacturing factory or a manufacturing factory for organic EL devices or the like) is executed by the manufacturing execution system (MES). In such manufacturing factories, a production processing system has been put to a practical use. The production processing system includes a plurality of processing devices that process workpieces, a plurality of conveyance devices that convey the workpieces among the plurality of processing devices, a conveyance control device that controls the operations of the plurality of conveyance devices, and the manufacturing execution system that determines the processing devices in which workpieces should be processed, to instruct a recovery destination and a conveyance destination of the workpieces to the conveyance control device as well as to instruct processing contents for the workpieces to the processing devices.
Patent Document 1 discloses a processor management system that, when a time until a workpiece to be preferentially processed arrives at a processing device is sufficiently long, permits the processing device to process a workpiece other than the workpiece to be preferentially processed and, when a time until the workpiece to be preferentially processed arrives at the processing device is short, instructs the processing device to wait for the arrival of the workpiece to be preferentially processed.
Patent Document 2 discloses a power supplying system that compares an arrival time taken for arrival of a workpiece and an activation time of a processing device which is in a power saving state and, when the arrival time is longer than the activation time, causes the processing device to be in the power saving state.
Meanwhile, Patent Document 3 discloses software that includes a sequence of communicating with a plurality of processing devices that process workpieces, a sequence of communicating with a plurality of conveyance devices that convey the workpieces from an arbitrary processing device to another arbitrary processing device, and a sequence of communicating with the manufacturing execution system (MES) that instructs a processing on the workpieces to the processing devices. The software includes at least one of a conveyance instructing sequence of instructing movement of the conveyance devices to the conveyance devices by using the information and a processing instructing sequence of instructing a processing to be executed to the processing devices by using the information.
In Non-Patent Document 1, it is disclosed that conveyance efficiency may be improved when the factory production management system (manufacturing execution system (“MES”) and a conveyance control system (material control system (“MCS”)) configured to control a conveyance system (overhead hoist transport (“OHT”)) by receiving various instructions from the MES, share information such as, for example, a factory layout. It is also disclosed that, when buffers capable of directly moving and loading from a carriage of the OHT, for example, over head buffers (“OHBs”) (racks below an OHT rail), are provided and a device group of the next process are known in advance, the workpieces to be conveyed to a designated device within a short time by carrying the workpieces to the buffers of the corresponding bay without using a stocker.